Sports, Travel, and Life

Tales of a Driver (Lyft & Uber)

Yesterday, was my first day driving for Lyft and Uber. I had some speed-bumps but by the end of the night I felt like I was playing Daniel in France’s hit movie Taxi.

With my first attempt of the day, I tried to go to the Milwaukee Airport to get a passenger but failed. I logged-in on my apps but I wasn’t collecting any requests. I quickly gave up and texted one of my friends who has experience driving. He told me about this parking-lot at the entrance of the airport which is GPS coordinated where all drivers must go in order to get a “queue” line-up for an airport pick-up a passenger.

After lunch, I returned to the airport and joined the airport queue. After waiting a few minutes, my phone dinged and a ride request from Ana appeared. She was in town from San Diego for her grandchild’s baptism and of course to see her daughter (a Marquette Alum). I informed Ana that she was my first ever passenger—she was excited. Right off the bat, I had issues with Waze and my GPS navigational system. Thankfully, Ana was very patient with me as we made our way to Wauwatosa. She wished me luck in my job search and tipped me five bucks!

Another passenger was very happy despite just finding out that it may be two months before he can move back into his house after he suffered a fire last week. He was a big hockey fan and immediately commented on my Alex Ovechkin jersey that I was wearing. He spent much of this five minute ride explaining to me why he despised the Chicago Blackhawks—needless to say, it was very entertaining.

My night concluded giving back-to-back-to-back rides to three separate ladies. The first was from a young lady named Megan who was impressed with my 5-star rating. She only requested a ride because “her feet hurt.” So, our ride together was literally 6 blocks. My next ride was for a UW-Milwaukee Finance Professor who appeared she could pass as a student herself. Turned-out she was only 27 years young! After dropping of the Professor, I picked-up a UWM-Student. I jokingly told her about the young-looking professor I just met and she told me that she had a young Asian looking professor last semester for her Finance class—imagine if she was her student—small world!!

Anyways, this UWM student requested a ride to the Irish Pub in the Third Ward. She voluntarily divulged that she was nervous on what she was getting herself into. She apparently dated her best friend who she broke up with; but surprisingly she was able to salvage her friendship with him. Now, she is dating one of her ex’s friend’s; and tonight will be the first time they will all be hanging out together…